By Peter Hutchison and Nick Collins SHOPPERS have been told to expect a month of discounts in the high street as uncertainty over the outcome of the general election causes a price war between retailers.

Stores have cut their prices as consumers, nervous about prospective tax rises and Labour’s planned increase in National Insurance, rein in their spending.

A price war between supermarkets that began earlier this year has spread to the rest of the high street.

Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Debenhams introduced substantial Easter weekend price cuts and are likely to be followed by other chains in the coming weeks.

The discounts were up to 70 per cent in many cases, and were wider than the usual food and furniture bank holiday sales. The disappointing weather at the weekend was seen as an ideal opportunity for retailers to jump-start a spending spree as families went to the shops instead of going on day trips.

Offers included mobile phones reduced from £299.95 to £99.95, satellite navigation systems with £170 savings and the prices of some television sets halved.

Shoppers have put off buying expensive items until after the general election when they will have a better idea of their disposable income, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accountancy firm. Experian, the data analysts, said a possible change of government was adding to consumer uncertainty.

Analysts predicted that the heavy discounting would continue because retailers feared that low consumer confidence would lead to falling sales before the election, which is expected on May 6.

Jason Gordon, from the management consultants Booz & Company, said: “What is surprising is just how widespread the discounting has been this Easter weekend. There have definitely been signs of people on the high street discounting who don’t

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THIS is the moment last week when science moved into a new era, with a landmark experiment at the Large Hadron Collider.

A computer screen confirms that two beams of particles have successfully been fired at each other at almost the speed of light — and with no sight of the end of the world.

Scientists applauded and drank champagne after the £4.4billion machine, which has suffered more than a year of setbacks, smashed sub-atomic particles into even smaller pieces. It is hoped that the experiment will reveal the secrets of the universe.

Some 80,000 computers will now begin analysing the vast amounts of data generated by the collision, and it will take months to report any discoveries.

The doom-mongers’ fear that the experiment might create a black hole that would swallow the Earth failed to materialise – though they will argue that the collider is still running at only half-capacity.